[Computer viruses] switch from one country to another, from one jurisdiction to another — moving around the world, using the fact that we don't have the capability to globally police operations like this. So the internet is as if someone [had] given free plane tickets to all the online criminals of the world. — Mikko Hypponen

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Synopsis

It's been 25 years since the first PC virus (Brain A) hit the net, and what was once an annoyance has become a sophisticated tool for crime and espionage. Computer security expert Mikko Hypponen tells us how we can stop these new viruses from threatening the internet as we know it. Talk recorded 14 July 2011.

About the Speaker

The chief research officer at F-Secure Corporation in Finland, Mikko Hypponen has led his team through some of the largest computer virus outbreaks in history. His team took down the world-wide network used by the Sobig.F worm. He was the first to warn the world about the Sasser outbreak, and he has done classified briefings on the operation of the Stuxnet worm - a hugely complex worm designed to sabotage Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities.

As a few hundred million more Internet users join the web from India and China and elsewhere, and as governments and corporations become more sophisticated at using viruses as weapons, Hypponen asks, what's next? Who will be at the front defending the world’s networks from malicious software? His work offers a peek into the post-Stuxnet future.

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